Giving Thanks 2011

This year we hosted the Mairs.  We cooked a delicious bird and all the aunties brought sides that filled the plates, including a cheese ball from Cassie’s mom that I still dream about.  Paige is into painting the holidays and about the above bird: she interpreted my sketch.  Why yes that is a storm trooper snowflake hanging in the window, would you like to make one? 

 

  

Grandpa Mair made all the grandkids a book of pictures and had Addie and Payson help pass them out. 

 

It was a fun time setting up one long table with place cards.  We brought up the preschool table for more seating and left it up stairs for the whole holiday season.  We started eating at it for dinner and it’s so luxurious because we all fit and there’s room for food too.  In January I took the honey oak honeymooners table back downstairs and for now it always looks like we’re about ready to host the church Christmas banquet.  

Apple Pudding Cake

Make this make this make this make this!  You won’t regret the butter sauce.    Well, you might, but your dreams, kisses and dirty plates will be rich and sweet.  I made it last night for book club and it foiled my turkey and brown rice commitment.  Today I fought back by feeding the leftovers to the kids.  You didn’t see me mopping up the sauce off Addie’s plate with a crust of whole wheat bread.    

1 cube (stick) butter

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

4 large unpeeled apples, grated

2 cups flour

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup chopped nuts (I like pecans)

Cream butter and sugar.  Add eggs and apples.  Add dry ingredients and mix well.  Stir in nuts.  Bake in a 9 x 13 pan at 350 for 40-45 minutes. 

Sauce

2 cubes butter, no substitues

1 cup evaporated milk

2 cups sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

Cook over low heat for 15 minutes.  Serve warm over cake. 

Halloween 2011

On Halloween night,  all of the kids fell asleep immediately, deliciously happy and exhausted.  Surprisingly it was the touching and sorting of candy that caused as much delight as the consuming .  We (James) carved pumpkins the Saturday before, while I finished up the last of the costumes.  Fancy eh?

We visited Gardner Village too! 

This year we had a Snow Princess, Dracula,  a Mariachi Dancer, Shark Boy and a Football player.   

The Mariachi Dancer was a costume Addie and I worked on together.  I started the measuring, pinning, sewing of ribbon and quickly realized I could possibly still be sewing when Christmas came so I passed it on to Addie.  There’s around 100 feet of ribbon on the bottom of that skirt and Addie sewed on about 90 of it.  

 

Paige’s costume was one Addie used a few years ago.  Benjamin wore the cape my mom sewed for my brothers, vintage!  And it about killed him to put on a Sunday shirt with it.  After consulting Etsy I used a cereal box, spray paint, worn out sweats, and hot glue and Stuart became Shark Boy!  Here’s the shadow he showed me.  He wore the costume two days straight. 

Additional notes:   

Isaac was going to be a pumpkin, but the costume was too small.   And then a lion but he just cried because of the hair/mane.  Football player was the most comfortable for everyone. 

Dinner was pumpkin soup and tatter tots.  Adults eat the soup and the kids eat the tots. 

We roasted seeds.  Hurray.  I ate them all! 

Best treat in the bags:   Full Size Snickers! 

James and I went to our neighbor’s Halloween party and dressed as tourists.  Note:  Fanny packs are not hot and ponchos are.   Until next year. 

 

….and we’re back

Missed you. I know, I know, I was very committed to my record about 6 months ago and then I just dropped y’all. And what of my record? My scrapbook/remember-all/ journal? How about I start here:

Stu and James after the Ward Carnival tonight.

Ikey, who is now practically one.

James Mair and I rode a Ferris Wheel while listening to Sting (in San Francisco!). “Every Little Thing he Does is Magic” and Sting was pretty amazing too. What else…

• I weaned Isaac a couple of weeks ago and I feel like the fog of feeding is lifting.
• It’s almost Halloween and my kids are off track (summer vacation in the fall), for the next three weeks!
• We just finished our turn with the flu. There were barf-bowls-a-good-and-plenty.
• The San Fransico trip was a bonus trip for me, a work trip for James, but we’ve been planning a get a way to NYC in a couple of weeks. Nanny Donna is coming to save the day!

More posts to come of the last six months.

Last Week’s Colors

We went to see the Hatch’s last week just to eat rainbow bananas (banana chunks dunked in various flavors of powdered Jello--ingenious)—And to visit and reconnect with Jennifer and her crew as well.    We added our pineapple to the bananas and talked.  Jennifer even changed a blow out of Mr. Ike’s and didn’t even bat a lash when I confessed I had no extra clothes.  A blow out I tell you!  

Right before leaving we snapped a few photos.  Jennifer, I swear this was the best one—and look at me with only one eye showing.  You, Addie, and Ike’s bare legs look great!

  And the kids…  personalities in full demonstration.  Am I right? 

Great Memories of Jennifer--

1  She was in charge of me after Charlotte’s stillbirth.  She called, asked and even planted seeds with me in memory.  We’ve been friends ever since.  

2.   Her Ideas! such as frozen strawberries for ice cubes in lemonade.   Many one liners for my Christmas cards came from her brain.  She can recycle anything even making a stick pony made out of old jeans for Adelaide.  She’ll garden till it’s dark and contributes to the Back Yard Farming Blog regularly.  Like I said, she has great ideas.         

Jenny,(it’s what her husband calls her) you’re one in a million.   

 

And this little endearing turkey got lost this afternoon.  After 15 minutes of mild panic I found him in the Pilot, locked, asleep, kneeling on the floor of the back seat, head on the seat.  It was the third time I checked the car. 

She rides

I sent Paige out to “get started”.  I came out a few minutes later and she said, “you won’t have to do anything, I got it.”  I still owe you a shot of her running.  Cycling is just as entertaining. 

She’s a determined gal who is ready for anything.  

Sleep or Slim

I’ve never been able to lose baby weight while nursing a baby due to a lack of motivation and an insatiable appetite.

I’ve never trained for a race while nursing either. 

In February I tried both at the same time.  James and I joined the West Jordan’s Biggest Loser contest and I started training for the Woman of Steele triathlon.  It went well for about 7 weeks and then baby went through a growth spurt.  He stopped sleeping long hours and sucked even when there wasn’t any milk left.

If I lived 100 years ago my profession would have been wet nurse so my conscience was troubled.  I’ve always produced.  I figured I had to either quit trying to be the biggest loser or quit training.  I started eating butter again happy was the babe.  I’m still training for the WOS and I’ll do an update on that soon.  It’s four weeks away.  

As far as the contest —we made all the required weigh ins hoping for one of the random drawings of $50.  James won that (the guy is so lucky) and I won a water bottle.     

In the end I lost 11 pounds before I gave up.  Is this a downer post?  I hope not.  11lbs!  WhaHoo!  I feel like I could have weaned Ike, supplemented, found a better balance of butter in my life, but I went with the workouts, which have been really fun and have done wonders for my mood.  I’ve got my whole life to lose weight right?  

Free Breakfast!

Addie hates oatmeal.  Everyone in the family eats oatmeal most mornings, except Addie.  She’s a great eater but not of oatmeal, so when I mentioned a free chicken biscuit breakfast sandwich from Chick-fil-a she was all in. 

Tomorrow they are offering a free cinnamon cluster and Friday is free chicken minis.  Thanks Chick-fil-a for the tax relief. 

 

More Sophie Love…

We’re almost two weeks into our off trackness.  We went to see Yogi Bear yesterday where I took the stroller right into the theatre and stealthy passed out the mircrowaved bags of popcorn.  My kids will mock me in their adulthood. 

Butter’s on sale ($2) again this week.  Hooray! I’m now hording butter and bacon if you need any. Yesterday Isaac Scott got shown up by baby cousin Anna Hawkins.  We thought we had an edge when, with his weighty middle, Isaac figured out how to lift is legs and use the girth to roll over.  Ann then stood holding onto the coffee table.  She stands!  Ben explained later, “Isaac couldn’t do that because he’s too fat.”     

Michelley

Michelle lived on Ticklegrass four doors down and had married my senior class president.   We’ve been friends ever since.   We went for an off track distraction and she:

1. Set up a bouncy house (for my kids)

2. Synced her Wii motes (for my kids)

3. Fed me Pastor Ryan’s Chicken Tikka Masala with whole wheat couscous--heaven.   I used her as an audience for cutting Benjamin’s hair.  He behaved remarkably well and she offered him a prize.  She then let me babble on and on while she held and adored my cranky baby.  What a friend.  

Michelle commented that she is loving my blog, and the more frequent posts.  I was snobby and told her it’s all for me and my “record”.  But that’s not true! Not True!  It is for you Michelle and everyone else who comes of your own volition, (or through Google reader).  Thanks for reading my “record” and at times mentioning what you like.  I only wish we could all live on Ticklegrass together, to swap kids and have sugar to lend.   (Although, not particularly Ticklegrass because that road was busy and on a big hill; we’d  have flattened kids who wouldn’t know how to ride a bike).      What we did in return:  Made them fruit pizza and balloon animals.Grandma Christy gave Addie a bunch of balloons, balloon books and a pump for her birthday.  It has resulted in hours of entertainment and she’s getting good at it. She’s especially good at giraffes and wiener dogs.  She’ll even make you a hat.One last thing.  Addie told me she wants to marry someone who looks like Ken, as in Ken and Barbie.  “Thank you, well groomed man…” (name that movie)  Speaking of a well groomed man…he’s sleeping on his own in the girls’ old pink room.  I should probably get around to painting it.  Or at least take down the flowered curtains. 

Sharon, he loves [all natural rubber, made in France, $20, upscale baby teether] Sophie the Giraffe.  Thanks for sending her.  You’re right, all the kids play with Sophie.   

p.s.  We went to a wedding reception this weekend and they had a rice crispy treat cake.  Also a buffet of every kind of rice crispy treat.   Top vote to Heath Bar and second place to mint.      

And groovy it was…

Addie made the stencil for the peace sign on the cake.  You could tell it was a peace sign right?  Are you checking out the cheese balls as well?  The favorite candy of the day was Swedish fish.  mmmm   

Playing the Wii Just Dance Kids and tie-dying bandanas.  

I wish the colors would have been darker but the design work was fun to see.  I used Rit powder with salt and detergent.  Lots of rubber bands, stuffed into a zipolc and set in the sun. 

 

Miranda opted to let her bandana dye in the ziploc a little longer.  When I said pose like it’s a cape, Miranda had Addie rolling. 

All in all a huge success!  We dropped a few of the party games when the rinsing part of tie dying went long.  Addie said it was the best party ever and with costumes like these and party snacks, including those cheese balls, well hands down, amen. 

In college my first roommate ever introduced me to Tommy Roe.  Heard of him?  From the early sixties.  He sings about girls, girls, and girls but it’s innocent and so danceable. His best are Dizzy, Sweet Pea (Paige’s Favorite), and Sheila. 

I let you all believe I was going to do the Lotoja by myself.  As if.  I didn’t even try to modify the post or jump into the comments.  Actually,we (Robyn, Vanessa, and Jen) applied for a 4 person relay ticket and we’ll know if we’re in by May.  Our team name:19kids@home.